This week we focus on a celebration of our 40 Year Anniversary. The main event for parents is our Thanksgiving Service on Sunday 7 August at 2:30pm in the MPC at the College. We are joining with Green Point Baptist Church, our founders, to give thanks to God for his provision over the past 40 years. We would love to see lots of school families join the staff and the Church members for this event.

On Wednesday our K - Year 12 students and staff joined together for our 40 Year Anniversary Whole School Assembly to celebrate God's faithfulness through the decades. 

Our MCs, Mrs Fay Davis (Primary) and Mrs Kerrie Rochford (Secondary) recalled many humorous early GPCC memories. We welcomed Alumni students, Luke Taylor (2005), Gemma Leonard (nee Gardiman) (2018), and Maegan Cameron (2018) who joined our worship band. A video greeting was played from past students, Toby and Heather Houston who have been serving in ministry in Africa for the past 10 years. Current teaching staff/Alumni, Mrs Kaylie Turner (nee Higgins) (1997) and Mrs Jo Pearson (nee McCarthy) (1985) shared stories about their early days as students at GPCC. Past student Bethany Panjaitan (nee Rochford ) (2003) shared some memories of her time at GPCC from K - 12, and her ministry work in Indonesia. Our celebrations concluded with a whole school drone photo. 

GPCC was part of a growing movement that saw Christian parents, soon followed by many others, begin to move out of the public system and into Independent schools.  This reflected a growing concern by parents about the increasing secularisation of the public system and a desire by them for their child to be in a Christian environment or at least one in which traditional, Christian values and attitudes still prevailed. That trend has continued and is growing today. Approximately 30% of school-age children attend Catholic or other Independent schools in Australia – the highest ratio anywhere in the world. In NSW, the Independent sector is now overtaking the Catholic sector in numbers and within the Independent sector, Christian schools are the fastest growing.

GPCC has benefited from this trend and with 40 years’ experience is now able to provide a quality educational experience for children from church and non-church backgrounds. As we look to the future, we recognise that there is still much for us to improve and learn to be a truly high quality school. We are working on that, and I appreciate your support and feedback as we seek to make on-going improvements. But this week, we are taking time to celebrate the progress of the past 40 years and I trust you can join us.

Phillip Nash

Principal